To ask you to swerve Shein & Temu

Amazon is just a marketplace. Just like Temu. So is ebay. And aliexpress.
People really need to absorb this information. Marketplaces are not the same as brands or retailers.
So of course amazon will have similar problems. It is the same business model.

Part of the reason we don't have those things here is because we actually want to be paid a bit more than a few pence an hour and we don't want to do 14 hour days.

I mean, yeah, we could get the 70s sweat shops back, do away with minimum wage, etc, but I'll bet you any money it won't be anyone on this thread working there. It will be the immigrants everybody hates.

I worked in a factory for 10 years in the 90s, pre minimum wage and also pre some of the health and safety regs we have now. Most of our young Temu and Shein buyers today don't expect to be working eight hours a day, six days a week on the factory floor (which is what I did), let alone the sort of hours your average Chinese production worker puts in.

We wouldn't do it and we wouldn't want our kids doing it. So don't let's pretend we could just bring it all back and we'd have people willing to actually do it, unions or not.

I get your point OP and agree but I do find it a slightly lazy argument for a few reasons (kindly, not rudely.)

1. temu and shein 100% have the worst rep but if you look into other big retailers (including Amazon) they have the same warehouses, same terrible wages, same problematic labour and bad quality materials. Do you honestly know where every single item you’ve bought yourself, has been sourced? (No judgment as I definitely don’t)
2. cost - as people have said, it’s easy to say “let’s just buy organic toys” when you have the money for it. Or easy for some to spend £50 on an organic t shirt when others are worrying about whether to heat or eat. its very easy to think that someone should avoid temu but there’ll be families that can only afford gifts on temu so will choose to use it. in regard to your actual post, if you’re concerned someone will use temu or shein to give presents to you, I’d go on a case by case basis. Perhaps suggest you don’t exchange gifts this year? Do an activity together and pay for yourselves? ive never ordered from temu and don’t order from shein (but have in the past) but definitely dont research where everything I buy, comes from. I have heard about chemicals in temu toys for example but if someone gives this to you, I would discreetly recycle it/send it back without making them feel rubbish

Scarlett O’Hara-ass comment

Cheap rubbish and unethical working practices.

@DoNoTakeNo that's a no from me. Not everyone can afford not too.

China has been stealing IP and copying designs for so long now that almost nobody bats an eyelid anymore. Pretty much all markets are flooded with Chinese-made versions of everything. It's a genuine problem, but it drives the cost down (great for the consumer) and big names then can't compete with such low costs (bad for the manufacturer).

It's cheap, it's good enough, but it will cost more in the long run as it will need replacing more often. As opposed to paying for quality and reliability, ie buy once, cry once. It's a bigger up-front cost, but it will last much longer than the cheaper alternative, possibly even several purchases of the cheaper alternative.

Yes, me.You could get the cheap stuff off the market stalls, but it was really bad. We had those cheap padded dressing gowns when I was small in the seventies. Can't remember what it was made of, but you didn't want to stand too close to the fire. And we were expected to make it last. You wore it until you grew out of it.

I don't remember fake nails. You grew your own. I was lucky, there, mine grew really well. My friend used to bite hers, and always envied mine.

Really sheer tights used to ladder so easily. We used to put nail polish on when it started and hope it wouldn't go further up.

But we still weren't buying outfits every week or even every month. It was cheap, but not THAT cheap. I remember in primary school I had a new dress for Christmas day, and I was expected to wear that dress as my 'best' until the following Christmas when I got a new one.

I work in primary schools in a deprived area, and there's kids that talk about their Shein deliveries nigh on every week. When I was that age, nobody bought costumes for a Halloween party. You made a witches hat out of newspaper rolled in a cone and a black 'dress' made out of a bin bag with holes cut out for the arms, or you wore the old sheet with eyeholes cut out.

It's true that we didn't have all the world book day dress up crap parents have to do now, thank goodness, but on the odd occasion when we did have anything 'dress up', nobody bought it. And only the lucky kids with mum's who didn't work and were good with a needle had something that wasn't just old clothes out of the wardrobe. I always went as a St Trinian because all I had to do was go in messy hair and socks with holes in. As a teen, you'd be racier about it and wear your games skirt and holey tights, and knit your school shirt under what bust you had.

Sorry, got mugged down memory lane, there...

I've only used them twice but both times was impressed. The quality was better than I had imagined for many items. I wouldn't buy anything expensive or electrical so more stocking fillers. Xxx

This is also a really good point - Temu trawling sites like Etsy and copying designs that are doing well is really damaging artists and craftspeople. There are just no actual positives to these companies, and so many far-reaching negatives.

Just because those things no longer exist, doesn't mean they can't make a return. Part of why we lost those things is because of trade unions refusing to modernise and compete, much of which hasn't changed. The country is not currently attractive to businesses because of the doings of the incumbent Chancellor of The Exchequer. It's just too expensive to operate here.

Being a slave isn't having a job.

Crafts, home made and small businesses are struggling as temu and shein copy their items and sell at a fraction of the cost

I can't stand either so no problem. It gives me the rage when I see a cute jumper in a charity shop and it turns out it's S*e as I call it. I think a lot of the goods are dodgy anyways. Both companies are shady AF.

Could it be made here? We have very little in the way of a manufacturing industry, nor the courses to teach such skills. Besides that, uk made doesn’t equate to quality. Paying 5x as much for a polyester or nylon jumper just because it’s uk made doesn’t solve the fast fashion problem…it’s all fast fashion just with a higher price tag. Also, there’s no definitive list of uk retailers ranking hazardous chemicals in products, make of that what you will.

Maybe rather than saving the world one slinky at a time, you could employ the 100,000 people who's jobs you are wanting to jeopardise, or go over there and open an ethical factory. I really want to see your business plan, assuming that it doesn't just involve feeling self satisfied about not spending £7.99 at Temu.

How will you test them though? Are you a scientist with a home lab? Can you detect carcinogens? Or whether a product is suitably flame retardant? Or made with hormone disrupting chemicals?

Nobody is analyzing the pencils. That is the problem.
Pencils from The Range will be safe and regulated. Pencils from Temu might not be.

Nope sorry. I'll test whatever I buy. If you're careful I've found most are good. Just have to bare in mind they're not tested to within an inch of its life like the UK. No alternative to common sense....You get weird toys made in the UK that are clearly aimed at toddlers but have the label 'not for under 3s' so it would pass but it doesn't make sense.

Given the numbers of people using food banks who cannot work due to long term illness or disabilities, there’s a case to be made that people in certain circumstances do need more help.

The Trussell Trust have been campaigning about it https://www.trussell.org.uk/support-us/guarantee-our-essentials

Forget what mumsnetters say. The people who matter are those who can make a difference - like your MP or country councillors. Stories of your lived experience can be powerful.

Are you saying the pencils that poster is buying have lead in the paint on them?

Where are you getting that information. Has she given you some pencils and you've had them analysed?

Is there a moratorium on parents giving their children stationery from Temu or Amazon or The Range or whatever shop you think has lead in the paint of their pencils?

15 Companies that STILL Use Child Labor

Secondary age children still chew and fidget with pencils, so do some adults, and teenagers still shouldn’t be handling toxic painted products all day long. I’m hoping that even if you don’t back down in this discussion you will actually be reconsidering if what you’re doing is safe.